Appointing an Attorney
The Alzheimer’s Society predicts 1.6 million people will be living with dementia by 2040. No one wants to think about what will happen if they become unable to make decisions themselves through illness or old age but having an LPA in place can help alleviate the stress and cost to family members. Without one, relatives may be unable to act on their loved ones’ behalf, making financial matters and healthcare much more complicated. This can be a traumatic experience, and too often it takes direct experience of having to find a way through the maze to ensure their loved will find it more straightforward. With an LPA in place, people will have the ability to legally speak on their loved one’s behalf and make decisions on their welfare, which many may assume they are already entitled to do.
Choosing the right Will
There are several legal choices to be made when making a Will and it is important to understand all the options before making a choice. Different wills afford different levels of protection and wealth preservation for future generations. A Will is one of the most important documents you will ever sign and done well it can provide positive protection for family and wealth.
Though it is a misconception that writing a Will covers all eventualities once you pass, it is nevertheless a crucial aspect of later life planning. Without one, your estate goes into intestacy, which means administrative challenges, delays, difficulty accessing funds and potential emotional uncertainty. Writing a Will clarifies how your estate should be passed on, easing the burden during a distressing time. It will also help to expedite the probate process, which many people fail to understand the complexities of.
The final piece of the puzzle – the estate health check
Coping with bereavement is already an incredibly difficult time for all families, and regrettably one which has become more prevalent during this healthcare crisis. As such, it’s more important than ever that people become cognisant of what they can do now to avoid additional pain for their loved ones later. It’s clear from our research that there are too many misconceptions about what later life planning entails.
Yes – writing a Will is important, although the low-levels of Will-writing for people under 40 with assets remains a concern. However, writing a Will is not the be-all and end-all. It is vital to run a full estate health checking including for examples a check on joint bank accounts, gifting, property titles and more to ensure that the actions taken in life are not in any way contradictory or problematic at the time of the estate administration
This is where advisors have a crucial role to play in encouraging people to the next frontier beyond financial advice and to have the right legal documents in place to protect their loved ones when the inevitable happens.
